To extend, or to not extend?

I had the same dilemma. We decided not to extend because our wedding will be ending at 10pm on a Sunday and my family will not want to stay later than that. I think it's a situational decision.

We did the same thing, ended at 10pm on Sunday because people had work the next day. But we had it for ceremony and reception for 6.5 hours. Yours is on a Friday it looks like so it may be cool to extend another hour. Is the 5 hours just for reception or does that include your ceremony as well?

@mimitrue It's 5 hours total. Ceremony/reception. And yes, it is on a Friday evening ceremony starting at 6pm.

In my opinion, it depends how many courses and number of guests to be served at dinner. And it depends on the age of the majority of your guests.

Basically how much time will dinner take out if your dance/party time? That's important to figure out if you want to do this. Also, Ask yourself who are my guests? Are they single and young-ish and stay out late and party. Or are they older have kids to get home to blah blah blah. I think knowing the answers to these question will help you decide.

Mine was originally 4 hours and they said it would be plenty but I didn't feel it would be so we extended ours to 5 hours, now I'm happy with the amount of time. I feel if we want to hang out more we will just to an after party at the hotel!

I would think you need longer, than 5 hours total.

We were given a half-hour, for the ceremony, 1-hour for the cocktail hour and 4 hours for dinner and dancing. We were able to add an extra half hour, to the reception, for only $250, for the venue.

We actually ended up using the ceremony room, for a half hour before it started, because we had a music prelude and many guests arrived early. Therefore, we had a total of 6 hours plus the added 1/2 hour.

What the hell...extend. At a great party with free flowing everything (opposite advice if the wedding is dry or -- truly sorry, but on a Sunday), the only reason people start to gather their stuff and head out is because they've heard the last call announcement and know the final song is about to be played. It all goes too fast for the money you've paid. An extra hour sounds great -- an extra hour of everything you've paid for, including that gown you will never wear again. If you can afford to do it, sign on the dotted line. After all, well hosted weddings, especially your own, are a blast.

So you have it 6pm-11pm right now, that is late but it is a Friday and since it starts later i think it could be beneficial to extend it one more hour. It's the beginning of everyone's weekend and they will want to let loose!

I think ours will be 5 hours but that does not include ceremony, so I would extend if I were you.

I extended and I still wanted to extend even longer! Mine was only a $125 charge for an hour, not $700 though.

5 hours are plenty. After a while the party dies out.... Save your money

It is an open bar....

We are extending ours a half hour so dinner is a little earlier which cost us $375. See if your venue will do a prorated half hour?

Does it fit in your budget? Does 5 hours meet your dream wedding? Do you think people will want to stay later? Our venue rental was $700 total and yes we got a great deal and we have it for the entire weekend (plus set up the week before). It's very hard for me to judge if it's worth it or not because I think our weddings may be on a different scale. Mine is rather small and intimate. Not saying it's not worth it. 5 hours does seem very short to me for a full wedding, but if it's not starting until 6pm on a Friday then maybe it would be enough. Myself personally, I never want to stay at a wedding later than 10pm, but that's just me! I get tired. Weddings wear me out.

Are your guests going to want to party all night? Could the wedding end at 11pm and then you and a smaller group of people could go to a restaurant or bar or something after if you wanted to keep celebrating? Maybe that would be a good compromise to reduce the cost rather than adding on $700 per hour.

We are extending from 11p to 1am. We live a good time and so do our friends and family haha

Just have an after party. Ours is 5 1/2 hours with ceremony. We will all just go to the bar afterwards.